Meet Emily, Ireland’s first ‘digital baby’

Meet Emily, just days old and one of the first Irish citizens to have their health records stored electronically from birth.

Born on Saturday in Cork University Maternity Hospital, Emily arrived in time to join the first group of newborns and their mothers to be given an electronic health record.

Weighing 7lb 5oz, the daughter of Ellen Shine and Aidan Cotter from Cork has an electronic patient chart that can be accessed by her doctors as required.

The HSE's maternal and newborn clinical managements system went live in the Cork hospital on Saturday and will be rolled out across the country over the next three years. The next phase of implementation will take place in University Hospital Kerry, and the Rotunda Hospital and National Maternity Hospital in Dublin.

Minister for Health Simon Harris says the initiative marks a very significant advance in the "national journey" towards a digital health system, and is also a sign of the Government's commitment to improving maternity services.

The HSE says the new system marks the introduction of the first national electronic patient chart for maternity anywhere in the world.